Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska attends a session of the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg (SPIEF) in St. Petersburg, Russia, June 3, 2021. REUTERS / Evgenia Novozhenina
NEW DELHI, March 2 – At least five superyachts owned by Russian billionaires have been moored or sailed on Wednesday in the Maldives, an Indian Ocean island nation that has no extradition treaty with the United States, according to ship tracking data. .
The ships arrived in the archipelago off the coast of Sri Lanka following heavy Western sanctions against Russia in retaliation for its February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
The Clio superyacht, owned by Oleg Deripaska, founder of aluminum giant Rusal, which was sanctioned by the United States in 2018, anchored off the capital, Male, on Wednesday, according to the MarineTraffic ship database.
The titanium, owned by Alexander Abramov, co-founder of steelmaker Evraz, arrived on February 28th.
Three other yachts, owned by Russian billionaires, were spotted sailing in Maldivian waters on Wednesday, data show. These include the 88-meter (288-foot) Nirvana, owned by Russia’s richest man, Vladimir Potanin. Most vessels were last seen anchored in Middle Eastern ports earlier in the year.
A Maldivian government spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The United States has said it will take tough action to seize the property of sanctioned Russians.
“This week we will launch a multilateral transatlantic task force to identify, prosecute and freeze the assets of sanctioned Russian companies and oligarchs – their yachts, mansions and any other ill-gotten gains we can find and freeze under the law,” the White House said in a tweet. on Sunday.
Washington has imposed sanctions on Deripaska and other influential Russians in 2018 over their ties to President Vladimir Putin following alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election, which Moscow denies.
Report by Alasdair Pal in New Delhi Additional reports by Mohamed Junaid, edited by William McLean
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